In House Training: University of Southampton

Dorota and her colleagues wanted to provide tailor-made, memorable training for mentors who support staff through challenging and sensitive situations.

While mentors had previously completed more traditional mentoring training, there was a desire to go further. The organisation wanted something more hands-on, grounded in real scenarios, including situations mentors might be apprehensive or uncertain about encountering.

The priority was not just understanding mentoring in theory, but ensuring mentors felt confident handling complex, emotionally charged or unfamiliar conversations in practice.

“We wanted to do something more hands on… something that would work around real life scenarios that we did experience or maybe scenarios that we haven’t experienced yet”

The School of Electronics and Computer Science commissioned a bespoke mentoring session from In Professional Development (INPD), delivered by Kevin Cherry, a highly experienced leadership, mentoring and coaching consultant and professional actor.

Rather than a standard classroom-based approach, the session used an actor-led role-play format, allowing mentors to engage directly with realistic scenarios in a safe but challenging environment.

This approach built on previous positive experiences the University had with actor-based training in other contexts, such as appraisal conversations, where learning had proven far more impactful and long-lasting.

“We decided to arrange training with an actor who could role play, and that worked really well”

The session was designed to be highly interactive and experiential, moving beyond discussion into lived practice.

Key elements included:

• Realistic role-play scenarios reflecting genuine mentoring challenges
• Opportunities for mentors to respond in the moment and explore different approaches
• Facilitated reflection and guidance from an experienced professional coach
• A focus on depth of learning through interaction rather than passive observation

This immersive format encouraged mentors to engage more deeply, test their instincts, and build confidence in handling difficult conversations.

“It made a lasting impression on our mentors.”

Dorota highlighted the value of INPD’s bespoke, flexible approach, tailoring the session specifically to the organisation’s needs rather than delivering an off-the-shelf programme.

INPD’s ability to combine:

• An experienced leadership and mentoring consultant
• Professional Actor expertise, felt very unique
• Actor-led role-play to simulate real-world complexity

resulted in training that felt relevant, practical and memorable.

“Individuals learn better when there is an interaction like this, they go more deeply into the scenario.”

1. Greater confidence in handling challenging mentoring situations – Mentors were able to practise difficult conversations in a realistic setting, reducing anxiety about encountering similar scenarios in real life.
2. Deeper, more memorable learning – The interactive, role-play-based approach created a lasting impression that traditional classroom training had not achieved.
3. Practical capability, not just theory – The training moved beyond explaining mentoring principles to enabling mentors to apply them effectively when it matters most.